Remembering Samuel Beckett: 'Waiting for Godot
Waiting for Godot or God?
The first time I saw the play I also noticed that 'Waiting for Godot' bears strange parallels to some forms of religion. It seems to me that the evangelists who live up the road seem too to be waiting for a saviour that they don't know or can't remember much about.
However, Samuel Beckett himself is recorded as saying that Godot does not represent God and that any similarities in the names are unintentional.
So once again we are left to contemplate what this crazy absurdist play is all about.
Yeah, it was funny in a strange and empty sort of way
Uncertainty and Wating For Godot...
"Nothing happens, nobody come, nobody goes, its awful" - Estragon
This is one line... which I find very impactful... and Waiting For Godot is one text which perhaps changed the way I used to look at things and life in general... in a rather romantic sort of a way...
UNCERTAINTY IS PERHAPS THE ONLY CERTAINTY...
Nothingness at the heart of human existence is perhaps the basic theme of the play and is dramtically presented by Beckett through uncertainty, use of language and the decline suffered by the character in Waiting For Godot ...
Uncertainty, firstly is symbolized in the non-existent character of Godot whose identity is uncertain and is seen as a means of salvation for Vladimir and Estragon, two of the protagonist in the play. The action or rather an absence of it revolves around the non-presence of the absent figure of Godot. This becomes as a void which is basically at the core of human existence.
The play donot have a third Act and therefore no closure to the plot, which is another aspect towards the theme of uncertainty in the play. Even the second Act is almost like a repitition of the first, following the same events - the tramps reunite, try hard to pass time, meet Pozzo and Lucky, recieve Godot's disappointing message(Godot's existence is in fact brought into question as the only confirmation of his existence, the messages he sends are shown to be unreliable and mainly prompted my Vladimir himself.), contemplate suicide and do nothing instead.
There is a lot of repitition of phrases and gestures which gives a sense of being trapped in an endless and meaningless cycle and the futility which lies at the end of it...
The language used in the play is highly ambiguous adding on to the meaninglessness. All communication is shown to be pointless...
When Estragon says "Nothing to be done," the 'Nothing' suggests inactivity and 'done' suggests action. Also at the end of both acts either of the tramps say "Lets go" but they don't move.
Uncertainty is also presented through the even balancing of hope and despair. The uncerainty of salavation is medidated upon by Vladimir. He rememembers that one the two thieves who were crucified along with God was saved and thinks it is a reasonable percentage. But he later recalls that this is said by only one of the four evangelists present at the scene. Two of the others are silent and the fourth says both were damned.
It is far more interesting to notice how the play is structured in terms of binaries... but the oppositions are set up only to be ultimately blurred.
Vladimir and Estragon who seem the opposite of Pozzo and Lucky are but similar too in many ways.. This creates the uncertainties in the sense that what seems to be opposite is also similar... There is a study diminishing of characters in the play...
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Life comes out as being a "Nothing" ...meaningless, at the end of the play.. which is what Beckett attempts to dramitize here...
I can perhaps go on and on.. with this.... and perhaps to go on is what one must do...
I have read Happy days.. as well.. which is another very good work by Beckett... showing the same nothingness and decline of characters...